How Does it Feel
by Aria6
Summary: A quick, painful one shot... Kairi is dead and Riku is to blame. What will Sora do? And what will the consequences be? A little Sora/Riku but not much... please read and review! Rated for gore


It was a beautiful evening in the Destiny Islands. Riku smiled as he leaned against the tree, gazing out over the ocean and watching the sunset. It was beautiful, a red sunset with glorious purple clouds. The kind of sunset that was so garish it looked a little unreal… but it was still beautiful. Nature could be so free with its colors, sometimes.

Riku heard the sound of feet on sand, and turned his head to look that way. He smiled as he saw Sora walked towards him… then the smile faded into a small frown. Sora was carrying his keyblade, and it looked like he had been crying. His eyes were red and swollen, and he was looking at Riku with an odd expression. Focused and set, yet… anguished? Riku hesitated, then pushed himself away from the tree.

"Sora, is something wrong?" He asked uncertainly… and was not prepared for the answer, which came as Sora swung the Kingdom Key at him. Riku had to leap back, startled. "Sora! What the hell?"

"Why Riku? Why?" Sora asked, his voice full of pain as he attacked. Riku dodged a few more times then had to summon in the Way to Dawn, the blades clashing and raising sparks. It was a full force strike, and Riku abruptly realized that Sora was really trying to kill him.

But why?

"Why what?" Riku concentrated on nothing but defense, fending off the other keyblade wielder. But it was difficult. Sora was always so good… A few tears slid down Sora's face, but he didn't lessen his attack for a moment and more sparks filled the air, more clashes of steel on steel.

"Why did you kill Kairi? Why?!?" Riku's breath caught in his throat, eyes widening. He almost forgot himself, but then Sora attacked again and he had to dodge.

"Kairi's dead? Sora, what's happened? I've been at this tree all night-!"

"Don't lie to me!" The Kingdom Key swung at his face, and Riku caught it with the Way to Dawn… and had to struggle to keep Sora away. When had he gotten so strong? "I saw you! I saw what you did to her! Why Riku? Why?"

"I didn't…!" But Riku's voice shook as he felt doubt. He'd had troubles with the darkness for so long… he'd sometimes had terrible thoughts. About Kairi, mostly, since she was the only one who stood between him and Sora. Could he have…? But he'd been at the tree all night, he knew that. Unless he had somehow lost time? But how could that-

_**SLASH!**_ Riku doubled over with a cry as Sora's strike took him unprepared. Terrible pain coursed through him, and he looked down numbly at the blood and… things that were oozing out of the deep slash in his abdomen. Without a thought, he pressed a gloved hand against the wound, trying to keep everything inside. All he succeeded in doing was tangling his fingers in the red and purple things that were threatening to spill onto the ground. So this was what his own intestines looked like… Riku thought he could have lived forever not knowing that. Although that was sort of the point. You didn't see your own guts if you were going to live…

"Sora." Riku lifted his head, using the Way to Dawn as a crutch as he struggled to stay on his feet. Sora seemed almost as stunned by the abrupt end to their duel as he was. "You're… sure… I…?" Sora's eyes filled with tears, and he nodded.

"I saw you Riku. I saw you." Riku stared into his eyes for a moment, seeing only sincerity… and sighed, a long rush of air.

"Then I… believe you. I'm so sorry, Sora." Riku coughed, tasting blood, and slumped to his knees. The pain was unbearable now. "So… sorry…" He let himself slide down onto his side, and pulled up his chin, exposing his throat. Long, pale and vulnerable in the dying light of evening. "Please… finish it…" He was dying by inches now, and just wanted it to be over. Riku's last sight was Sora nodding, and raising the Kingdom Key.

Sora watched, tears sliding down his cheeks, as Riku twitched and shivered for a moment as his lifeblood poured onto the sand with every beat of his heart. Soon, the flow from his torn throat slowed and stopped, aquamarine eyes going unfocused and dim. Sora couldn't have said how long he stood there, just looking at the dead body of his best friend, before a slow clapping awoke him and made him turn around in surprise.

"Riku?" Sora whispered, feeling like his heart had been seized by a fist of ice. Behind him was… Riku. Clapping slowly as he leaned against the tree, and smiling at him. A sinister, unspeakably evil smile.

"That was very good, Sora. I couldn't have done any better." He pushed himself away from the tree with a small laugh. "The best part was the way you made him believe he really killed Kairi. I never thought he'd actually accept that! I thought he would die insisting it wasn't him… but this was so much better, don't you think?"

"W-Who are you? What are you?" Sora said, staring into those hauntingly familiar eyes that were so… so _wrong_. It was just like how Riku had looked at him as he stood over Kairi's body…

"I'm his replica, of course." The Replica smiled, a chilly, amused expression as Sora swallowed convulsively. "How does it feel to know you murdered your poor, innocent friend Sora? And you even managed to convince him of his guilt before he died…"

"Y-you…!" Sora screamed in pain and rage and ran at the Replica. It only laughed, spreading its arms as the Kingdom Key slipped easily through it. There was no blood, only darkness.

"I was going to kill you too, before I vanished, but I think leaving you alive is so much better." The… thing that looked like Riku whispered in his ear as it began to vanish. "How does it feel, Sora?" The Replica laughed one final time, and vanished in a puff of darkness.

Leaving behind a shattered, broken boy to try to cope with the loss of the two people who had mattered the most.


End file.
